Anuradhapura

A two-day bicycle loop from the Bodhi tree to Abhayagiri

Allow two days by bicycle for the Sacred City: the Bodhi tree, Ruwanwelisaya and Thuparamaya on the first, then the Abhayagiri complex and Jetavanaramaya on the second. Ride early and late, rest through the midday heat, and keep a third morning for the stairway at Mihintale, 12 km east.

Day one, morning. Ride out early to the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi before the heat and the queues, then walk past the stumps of the Lovamahapaya, the Brazen Palace whose 1,600 stone pillars once held a monastery building with a bronze roof. A short walk brings you to Ruwanwelisaya, the restored white dagoba ringed by a wall of carved elephants.

Afternoon. Rest through the hottest hours, then cycle to Thuparamaya, held to be the first dagoba built on the island, with its slender stone pillars. Continue south to Isurumuniya, a rock temple by a pond where the carving known as the Lovers sits in the small museum. Finish at Tissa Wewa for sunset.

Day two. Head north to the Abhayagiri complex: the huge dagoba, the Samadhi Buddha, the moonstone at the Mahasena Palace and the twin ponds of Kuttam Pokuna. The Abhayagiri Museum explains the monastery and fills a hot hour well. In the afternoon cross to Jetavanaramaya, the largest brick dagoba, and end the day back at Ruwanwelisaya to see the evening worship. With a third morning, take a tuk-tuk 12 km east to Mihintale and climb its long stairway to the Ambasthala dagoba and Aradhana Gala rock for a view over the plain. A fuller order of sites is on the Poson Poya page, which covers the hill in June.

Lunch packets, hoppers and kottu in the New Town

Food in Anuradhapura is everyday Sri Lankan cooking, served in the small eateries locals call hotels. The best value is the lunch packet, rice wrapped in paper or a leaf with three or four curries, a scoop of sambol and often a piece of fried fish or chicken, sold from about 11:00 until 14:00. Ask for less chilli if you need to; the default is hot.

In the evening the griddles start clanging for kottu, chopped flatbread fried with egg, vegetables and meat. Look out too for hoppers (appa), bowl-shaped rice-flour pancakes, with an egg cooked into the centre, and string hoppers with dhal curry for breakfast. Short eats, the rolls, patties and cutlets sitting in glass cabinets, make a quick snack between ruins.

Because this is farming country fed by the old tanks, fruit is cheap and good at the New Town market: bananas, papaya, mango in season and king coconut, whose orange husk holds the best drink on a hot afternoon. Curd from buffalo milk with treacle (kithul syrup) is a local dessert worth trying.

Alcohol is low key. Public drinking is frowned on, bars are few, and guesthouses aimed at foreigners usually serve Lion beer. On poya days, alcohol sales stop.

Poson full moon, monsoon rains and the tank year

For dry weather, come between January and March, when highs run 30 to 35°C and under 90 mm of rain falls a month. June to September is drier but very hot, and October to December brings the monsoon. In June, Poson Poya draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.

The calendar here is set by rain and by the moon. April is hot (35C) with a burst of inter-monsoon showers of about 180 mm. From June to September rain almost stops, as little as 15 mm in June, but afternoons stay above 33C. October to December brings the north-east monsoon: 259 mm in October, 281 mm in November and 225 mm in December, when the tanks fill and the paddy turns green.

Every full moon is a poya holiday, and the biggest here is Poson Poya in June, marking the arrival of Buddhism with the monk Mahinda at Mihintale. Pilgrims arrive in their hundreds of thousands, roadside dansal stalls hand out free food and drink, and lanterns hang along the roads. Vesak, the May full moon, is celebrated with lantern displays too.

For a side trip, Dambulla and its cave temples lie to the south-east, a sensible stop on the way to Kandy or back towards Colombo.